Pipeline construction moves to Provo

PROVO — For several weeks, Margee Allan couldn't park in her own driveway.

And getting from one place to another in her Springville neighborhood has been a constant challenge.

"It's just a mess right now," Allan said about 400 East, which runs in front of her home. "One day a road will be open, but when you drive there the next day, it will be closed. It's been very hard to get around here.

"I just barely got to drive my car into my driveway. We've been parking around the block," she said.

It's been pretty much the same story all summer for everyone who lives on or near 400 East, where workers have laid five miles of 60-inch diameter pipe as part of the Spanish Fork Provo Reservoir Canal Pipeline project.

But while Springville's experience with the pipeline project is nearing an end, Provo's is just beginning. In October, crews will start digging up streets on Provo's southeast bench for the next phase of the project, from 1860 South to 450 North. The $28.5 million project is scheduled to be completed in November.

Provo residents won't have the same experience as their Springville neighbors, who have suffered through months of construction of the pipeline, which will carry water from Strawberry Reservoir to cities in Salt Lake County.

"In Springville, we went down a road that was nearly 60 years old," said Mark Breitenbach, project engineer for the Central Utah Water Conservancy District's Utah Lake System project.

"We have had to redo the city water lines, put in new meters and sewer connections, and put in storm drains that didn't exist before.

"In Provo, we will be going through newer neighborhoods, and some of the streets are wider, so we can keep those streets open," Breitenbach said.

Still, Provo residents on the east side can expect inconveniences.

"A project of this size is bound to have impacts," said Mayor John Curtis. "The goal all along has been to minimize those impacts. That won't be visible to those who are held up in traffic, but the (Central Utah Water Conservancy District) has been good at trying to find opportunities to help us."

The Provo section of the pipeline will be built in three steps or reaches. The first will run from the city's south border along Slate Canyon Drive. Impacts will be limited until the project nears Center Street near Seven Peaks and veers from the hillside into neighborhoods.